Harlem Renaissance Orchestra Swings Lincoln Center

July 15, 2011 at 6:00 am

Lincoln’s Center’s Midsummer Night Swing 2011 will end with a tried and true act: the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra. The group will close the event for the seventh year in a row on Saturday, July 16 .

This year, the group will be accompanied by award-winning saxophonist Billy Harper, who has recorded more than four dozen albums and toured with artists including jazz percussionists Max Roach and Art Blakey. The event is a tribute to tenor saxophone player Illinois Jacquet, who is best known for his solo on the song, “Flying Home.”

The evening will also include the festival’s Third Annual Ambassador dance contest during intermission, which honors late lindy-hopping great Frankie Manning, known for popularizing that form of swing dancing. The dance festival also features lessons by swing dancer Margaret Batiuchok.

Funders

MetroFocus is made possible by James and Merryl Tisch, the Anderson Family Fund, Judy and Josh Weston, Bernard and Irene Schwartz, the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Anti-Semitism, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, the Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, The Dorothy Schiff Endowment for News and Public Affairs Programming, Jody and John Arnhold, Rosalind P. Walter, the Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation, Laura and Jim Ross, and Shailaja and Umesh Nagarkatte.